The BIPOC Community Garden

Amanda David is a mother-of-three, herbalist and creator of The Jane Minor BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) Community Medicine Garden. One day, years ago, Amanda had a dream about a beautiful garden she could create in her side yard which could supply her every need. However, as she pondered over the idea, she felt that something was missing… she wanted her community to share in the dream with her. And so, one day, at her home in southeast Ithaca, New York on native Onöñda’gega’ land, Amanda and fifteen volunteers tilled the land and in a matter of one day created the beginning of community garden. Over the course of the next few weeks, the community members filled the garden beds with vegetables, fruits, herbs, medicines and other amazing useful plants. In a matter of just three months, the Jane Minor BIPOC garden went from an underutilized dirt lot full of weeds, to a thriving community center for gardening, herbalism and natural medicine. 

An herbalist from history was a huge inspiration and part of the namesake of the garden. In the mid 1800’s, Jane Minor, an enslaved Virginian was extremely adept with natural healing and helped her town during a deadly fever outbreak. She was so successful that her master enlisted her to help heal white folks in addition to her Black community members which eventually resulted in her being granted her freedom. She continued her skill and love of herbalism and using her income from her successful practice, she paid for the freedom of 16 people. In honor of Jane Minor, Amanda offers stewardship opportunities at the garden as a way to teach skills related to growing food and medicine making.The community garden space hosts an herb drying shed for making teas and medicines and. The shed includes a tool and resource lending library to help with education and skill development. This community space hosts regular social events, seasonal activities, classes and even parties to utilize the full value of the space and provide community members with a space that offers what the city does not. The beautiful garden, born out of a spatial blank, has become a sanctuary for people of color where they can foster their own mental and physical health and is the perfect example of what we can all do to reconnect with our bodies, our minds, our communities and our earth while also paving the way for equality, environmental revitalization and lifelong wellbeing.

Make a contribution to support the garden via the People’s Medicine Project Reclamation Fund

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Thank you to Guerrilla Foundation for funding this video of solutions.

This article was written by Sydney Lindquist.